The Great Amazing Pumpkin Race

I’d say we are about due for a happy weekend wrap-up post, aren’t we?

Hit it.

I had a hard time excepting that fall had arrived until this weekend. I’ll admit, I was a little bitter at the lack of summer weather we experienced here in Chicago and I just wasn’t ready for a change in season yet. Fall is my favorite time of year so normally I can’t wait to buy stock in pumpkin and place it into every possible food, drink and decor imaginable. I’ll admit I was a little bitter until this past weekend.

I now realize fall has arrived and I’m welcoming it with open arms.

So I jumped into it head first and I’m not looking back. This weekend I:

Bought my first bag of candy corn.

Lord help me. 

Ate my first pumpkin scone while visiting the farmer’s market with my mom.

I forgot how good those things are.

Found out what my nephews are going to dress up as everyday from now until Halloween.

Did you know pizza tastes better when it’s made by superheroes? 

And finally, I checked ‘visit a pumpkin patch’ off my fall bucket list.

My sister and I made the most of a beautiful fall Sunday and took my nephews to nearby Bomke’s Patch for the afternoon. It’s not far from where my mom lives and is run by a family that went to my high school. Living in Chicago for a number of years now has made me realize how much I miss things like pumpkin patches and tree farms. It sounds cliché, but being able to walk into an open field, yank a pumpkin from it’s stem (yes, yank because Jake wouldn’t give up the “snippers”) you appreciate the pumpkin so much more.

We started our adventure at the barn where Jake proceeded to ride the ‘for photos only’ tractor away from it’s location over and over. Then we moved over to the playground where they had a series of unique slides, swings and corn boxes. 

Next stop, corn maze.

If it weren’t for Owen, Anne, Jake and I might still be in that corn maze. That kid is a pretty good navigator. We had fun trying to locate each checkpoint and avoiding dead ends. Our success later led to a discussion of Anne and I applying for the next season of the Amazing Race together. A discussion that will only be revisited if she takes back her presumption that I would always have to be right throughout the race. An unnecessary presumption as I think we can all agree my knowledge, wit and charm would obviously carry us to an eventual first place prize.

Anywho.

After the corn maze we grabbed a wagon and started pumpkin hunting. The weapons, obstacles and search for elusive species indicated that this was much more of a hunt than a pick.

Letting me pick my own pumpkins is like sending a fat kid loose in the candy aisle. 30 minutes later we were down to 9 or so pumpkins (plus a Jake). I decided to re-evaluate my choices and let a few go because I was sure I was in for $50 worth of pumpkins at this point when my sister came back with the receipt.

15 dollars! 15 dollars for 9 pumpkins minus a Jake. We all know you can’t put a price on that gem of a kid. I could hardly believe it. Had I bought anything near those pumpkins at Home Depot in the city, I probably would have spent triple that.

Point country. 

Once I got over the fact that we cheated those pumpkin growers out of some beauts, we moved onto to the final activity of the day.

We took a tractor ride down to a small petting zoo where we met several goats, a donkey and a miniature horse I will call Beyoncé. No, I’m not saying Beyoncé looks like a horse. It’s just the way in which that little diva of a horse shook her hair that reminded me of Queen B.

Jake preferred to feed the little goat (the real thing, not the restaurant) as I tried to explain that just because he was little, he wasn’t necessarily the youngest. He didn’t care. All 50 cents of feed when straight to that little guy. I understood. Us younger children have to stick together.

And so ends a lovely fall weekend wrap-up. If you have a kid in your life or you just like using kids to be your excuse to do fun kids things, go visit a pumpkin patch this month. Not that I ever use my nephews for that kind of thing.

Happy harvest!